Pocket Trains: Railroad Tycoon Reviews

by Gotigerss

Would no longer recommend. With the latest update, Nimblebit is ‘thanking’ us for our support by giving us 30 seconds of ads for each 1 second of actual play. This used to be a GREAT game, but has been destroyed with all the ads. It’s distracting with all of the ads. This is in addition to the ‘freezing screens’, and the new delay when you click on the depart button. Also once you get to the higher levels (40+), Nimblebit shows their ‘support’ by only putting out a few jobs to do. I have trains that can carry 28 cars, but there’s not enough jobs to fill up the trains. And the daily challenge has become a real pain. It literally takes all day long - one or two cars half way around the world?? Why not make it a little easier some days. I have over 60 trains and it’s very hard to keep track of where the daily challenge cars are.

by Donsmythe

This game used to be a decent bit of fun, but ever since the last release it just keeps locking up for long stretches of time, anywhere from 15 seconds to over a minute. This makes it unplayable as you dispatch a couple of trains, which takes a couple of seconds, and then it just freezes again for a while leaving you unable to do anything, meaning it spends more time forcing you to wait for a hung screen than it does actually letting you play. Sometimes it freezes for so long that you get the “welcome back” panel even though you never went anywhere.

(My suspicion is that the most recent release either added a race condition between threads that causes a deadlock until a watchdog breaks it, or there is some hideous memory management under the hood that is causing fits for a garbage collection algorithm, or maybe even a bunch of circular references that can’t be collected, gumming things up, because the freezes get worse the longer you try to play.)

by RenesmeeCullen2313

I love all the nimble bit games so much. I’ve spent a lot of money and time on them. My favorite where tiny tower and pocket trains. I had over 100 floors on tiny tower and on pocket trains I had tons of railroads and licenses. Both of these apps when I deleted them said they were saved to the cloud. I even have the Game Center achievements to prove that I did have what I had. When I redownloaded them on my new phone I open them and it says “a legacy game has been discovered on our server” I clock restore and it just freezes and sends me to the tutorial. I’m so disappointed and upset. I’ll still play these games but I really wish I had my progress back. I’ve tried contacting nimble bit before and I did get an answer but it wasn’t much help. /:

by Panzer Pete XLVII

I love playing this game, but it has several issues that I find so frustrating that at times I am tempted to delete it and just move on to something else. 1) You work like crazy to earn crates that contain engine parts so you can get more capable engines. But, about 40% of the crates turn out to be parts for the “steamers” which are the least capable engines and since you don’t need them, you either just stack them up in a yard or sell them off for peanuts. 2) I have also lost many crates just dropping them in a switching yard only to have them disappear when another train tries to recover them. 3) The map does not scroll. So, although you can build a track across the entire Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon, Portugal to New York City in the United States, you cannot go across narrow distance from Alaska to Siberia.

This game has been out since 2013 and I’ve been playing it since 2014. About two years ago it just disappeared and I lost everything - including lots of engines and routes that I paid real money for. The customer service folks tried to help, but I could not get the game restored. After a year off, I reinstalled and started over - because it really is fun, but although there are some new features, it still is kind of basic and glitchy. I’m still playing, and occasionally paying real money to improve my rail empire, but you might think twice before getting involved in this.

by Aceventura68

Have enjoyed playing this and building train lines. Daily Challenges give you something to do once you have built all continents BUT NimbleBit, there is nothing more frustrating than completing a daily challenge to get a “Special Crate” &(20 bux) only to find out when you open the “Special Crate” (at a cost of 10 bux) and you get a lousy Steamer part...I am sorry what is the point of the Special Crate? What makes it special when the contents are the same as a normal crate i can collect when moving merchandise between cities?? Daily Challenge is kinda pointless with such mundane rewards (that still cost me to open)....NimbleBit please reply and explain. I double dog dare ya !

by IOH27

This game is great, it’s so much fun and it’s a very chill game. i’It’s honest & fair, The game doesn’t force you pay to have fun and I truly appreciate that. The only reason I give this game four stars is because I would love to see more from it, and I know it can do more. I’m not talking about drastic changes and costly changes, I would just love more attention to detail and making the world look and feel more real. More Interactive environments, more events and different kind of events, different character models, and things like this just fine tuning keeping the game fresh,balanced and fun. Overall great jobs developers

by Hi Ghost Tryptophan

I have been playing this game for years I started on my neXus 7 tablet and now I started again 6 years later I love the game and how you must work for what you get but yesterday it stop loading I would click on PocketTrains it would go to the Pocket Trains loading screen then load into the game super fast but then go black and crash all in a matter of 4 seconds and I then updates my iPhone XR to the latest update and thought that would work, went to click on PocketTrains and it lasted 5 seconds then crashed now it’s still crashing and I don’t know what to do I even restarted my phone and deleted and reinstalled it so help is needed

by Read It Twice

I will start by saying this game has a 4/5 not only because it is a NIMBLEBIT title, but because the Game functions have already caught my attention. Nimblebit never fails to achieve creating a game with just the right spice on something simple and sweet.

Fortunately this is the first glitch I have ever experienced in one of your games, for that I am more than grateful! Unfortunately this loop causes my game to freeze, not crash, but instead sit still and give the command to (in game) build a track to Munich whilst showing a red arrow to the location on the map. In clarification- I choose Munich as instructed and as the red arrow appears the insert box appears reading the option to buy Munich , however with this illustration on the screen and the red arrow pointing behind it, the game halts and won’t budge. I do look on to the horizon of staying tuned and crossing my fingers that you guys could assist me in this slight problem I am having. This is the first time I’ve actually reached out ever, so to hear from you guys would be absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much.

by Flyin_hooch

I played this game years ago and recently re-installed it and started over. I like this game as a simple game which takes time, effort, and thought to build an empire. I’m not in to “paying to win” so I don’t buy money to build. I build slower. I appreciate being able to do this. The biggest flaw is the loss of and missing jobs. Many times I drop a job off at a station (end of line for one train) to be picked up by another and delivered. Unfortunately, the second train’s job list often times will not display the job just dropped off! I’ve also had a job on a train, passing through several stations, only to have the job NOT delivered and disappear at the final destination. VERY frustrating.

by Pyshco Girl 555

I’ve played this game back for 3 years ago (probably long before that even) and now I’ve just started playing again when I expanded my railroads to japan I noticed the backgrounds are a bit off like the south is given an arid plain theme and the north is given a farm theme but when I examine the geography on google earth I say it’s more of a valley and mountain theme and on a sidenote I think the city of Sapporo should be added because it’s in pocket planes when I briefly played so why not put it into poket trains? Other than that this game is really well done 9/10 great game EA you should be taking notes it’s not about the money

by NoahTheGamer423

Pocket Trains has always been my favorite of the games, and I've played Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes, Bit City and Disco Zoo. The concept is simple but interesting, but can get outlandish, too (Literal train lines across oceans that would never exist irl). I usually don't like pocket games that you leave idle, but there's something about sending trains around to different cities that is satisfying to me. However, I agree that a few minor changes could be made for aesthetic: different times of day based on your timezone (like in Pocket Planes), weather based on location, etc. It is nice to know you finally connected Helsinki to Stockholm, though (It's been awhile since I last played). Now, if you could just connect Dublin to Glasgow, that'd be great lol! Keep up the good work, NimbleBit.

by Rotten24

Spectacular game. Long term playability, balanced economy, grindy but enjoyable. As usual, nimblebit delivers another masterpiece. There are 2 big misses on this game unfortunately; 1. They seem to no longer update it, likely busy with bit city and tiny towers. And 2, the big one, is the game desperately needs an update in which cargo shows the location it has originated. Often I bring cargo away from the destination for storage and then, days later I’ll have a train come by, pick up the cargo, having forgotten the origin of it, and attempt to take and store the cargo at it’s origin point. Unfortunately you can’t store it there, so lots of time and energy is wasted shunting cargo needlessly between cities because I am unaware of the origin city and repeatedly forget. Besides these two small flaws, the game is magnificent. Well done Nimblebit.

by Skydrifter26

I started playing this game a few years back and I was immediately hooked on it! The game mechanic is very easy to get used to and is very enjoyable! I enjoy how the trains in this game are based off of real trains from around the world and even have the same paint schemes. I would like to see features from other NimbleBit games (i.e. Bitbook, because who doesn’t enjoy looking at the funny posts?) and maybe a few new features (Like a cab mode of some sort so you can feel like you’re driving the train)... And also some more trains. But other than that, it’s a very fun an addicting game! I highly recommend this game for enthusiasts!

by TheNoodler8

I really love sitting down and just managing my trains for 5-20 minutes at a time. Lots of fun and very few bugs. The cloud save works great too. Thought I was going to lose all my stuff when game kept crashing and I reinstalled but cloud had all my progress. This is definitely one of those games that you have to stick through the slow beginning to get to the fun part where you really start earning and expanding the railroads. So my advice to new players is be patient and after some time you will really start to love the game and have more fun.

by Deltia Shock

It’s a extremely fun game to play, can play it at my own pace and it’s not showing me a add every 30 seconds. It’s not pay to win, yes it takes time to build up a network but it’s worth it when it all works together. Yes you can buy crates and special crates for money, but even then they are pretty cheap for the amount of them you buy. And you don’t even need to buy Bux’s either. You can stock up on cars worth lots of them and then deliver them all at once and get lots of bux’s easily. Very fun game, not littered with ads, does not require internet to play, does not require paying for content with real money to play. And also does not require you to pay money to play the game to its fullest.

by Hinterland99

I’ve had this game for years now (as well as Pocket Planes) and I absolutely love it. No pressure for in game purchases, just a fun and happy game to play. No need for internet connection either so it makes it a great time waster for flights and travel or when service is hard to find. I’ve had the same game across 4 different devices, ever since my iPod touch right up to my iPhone 8 and I’ve never wanted to delete it. Hard to give any other app these days the same sort of respect that this one deserves. Hope they never change it!

by RB 36 100

I like the game, been playing a real long time.I let my granddaughters play, its kinda like a geography lesson and they don’t know it.I used to be world wide but then I sold everything off to consintrate just in North and Central America. I usually don’t buy much, I just keep my trains running which builds bux and coins. After reaching my goals then I might buy something. One of the things I’d like to see is the ability to double track between cities. Especially between your busiest cities. This becomes more needed since all the yard capacity can be doubled now. The two tracks could be the same company,same color even. You could label them East and West bound, North bound, South bound.A and B track whatever,like the real railroads do. You could build the second track the same way as the first track. I like to call this game a creative way to do nothing. Keep on training and thanx.

by Mopedimus

Nimble Bit has struck a great balance here. It is completely possible to play and enjoy the game without spending a penny. The premium currency comes at a rate that does allow for growth. However, that fact alone makes me feel like it’s okay to make a purchase. And the one time VIP rewards, instead of ridiculous weekly fees. THANK YOU.

As for gameplay, it’s fun and passes the time. Lots of strategy in sending cargo around (well, for an idle game).

I cannot recommend it enough. Thanks Nimble Bit! (Now please bring these quality of life features to Pocket Planes!)

by J52738sjd

Such a great game to kill 5-10 min at a time, or more! Easy, fun, like a digital version of Ticket to ride, only way better.
If you could make crates cost a little less to open that would be helpful - maybe 5 bux instead of 10. Also, if trains didn't break down quite so frequently, that would help. Or make upgrades for each train type available so they break down less with each upgrade or something.
Overall a really wonderful game though!
If you could make it even more detailed that would be awesome! Perhaps work on expanding some details? But it's also awesome as-is.

by Eac1001

First off, I love this game. I’ve been playing it for years and it still captivates me. I definitely thought it was forgotten about though due to the lack of updates, but since the new one came out in glad to know y’all still care!! So yes, great game. 5/5 stars. I also thought I’d just throw in my suggestion here, I know it’s a long shot y’all should definitely add some more special trains, such as the UP Big Boy. I would 100% spend money on crates and bux to earn that, even though I’ve never spent money on this game before. Just a suggestion, but I think adding the world’s biggest steam train to the game would be awesome. Cheers!

by TagPlays

Long after the days when a game like pocket trains was a staple for bored high schoolers, I still think this is one of my favorite mobile games for its simplicity and charm. The premise is basic- earn and expand. Ads are optional and non impeding, which if anything is a breath of fresh air compared to the harassment style of newer apps. It’s been five years since I originally downloaded pocket trains, and it has ended up on every device I’ve owned since my old iPhone 5 because it just feels. So. Nice.
Thank you, NimbleBit. I silently wish for a Pocket Trains 2 often. Now if you’ll excuse me, my cherry steamer just arrived in Milan.

by Katy McCull

The simplicity of Nimble Bit’s visuals is nostalgic and beautiful at the same time. The game gives you a sense of building something over time, as well as incorporating geography and resource management. It can be as simple or as logistically challenging as you want. Also, unlike every other free mobile game, Pocket Trains does not force annoying ads on you. You can watch them for lucrative free rewards, but you can play the game ad-free if you want. This is how mobile games are supposed to be!!!